It isn’t just Britain’s economy that has been sickly these past five years but
its citizens too, judging by the searches made on the internet.

An analysis of Google UK searches over the past decade by The Times
Data Team has found that since the start of the recession there has been a
surge in people looking for terms related to their health — apparently
self-diagnosing what in many cases are stress-related conditions.

There have been twice as many searches as would have been expected for the
terms “bloated stomach” and “stress symptoms” and 72 per cent more for
“blood pressure